Swedenborg's Property

Swedenborg bought No. 41 and 43
Hornsgatan, South Stockholm, on March 26th, 1743, from the City Treasurer,
Carl Segerlund, for the sum of 6,000 dalar kopparmynt. This was exactly
the sum received in cash from Count Gyllenborg as part payment of Swedenborg's
property in Starbo, Presthytten and Marnäs which was sold him for
36,000 dalar k.m.

The style of the heirs' description of the property is very different
from the style in which such descriptions are written at the present day.

The measurements of this property, as given by the heirs, was in length
on the north side, 112 ells or 218.40 feet (1 ell = 0.593802 meter or
1.95 feet) ; on the south side, 112 ells (218.40 feet); on the east side,
53 ells or 103.35 feet, and on the west side, 52 ells or 101.40 feet,
making together in square measure, 5,880 sq. ells or 22358.70 sq. ft,
a fraction over half an acre.

This
drawing of Swedenborg's property on Hornsgatan in South Stockholm was
made by Mr. Donald Moorhead according to a scale supplied by Mr. Russel
Lyman. Click on image for
a larger version.

To make a survey of this property would require information of the dimensions
of the adjoining properties and the established street lines. The information
given in the heirs' description gives the surveyor a definite line to
work from, if the street lines are well defined by proper land markers,
but there are no bearings to direct the surveyor for the lines not adjoining
the street; these lines must be established by measuring from some established
line which could begin from some other street line that has been established,
and by using the information or descriptions of other properties between
the established street line and Swedenborg's property. In other words,
a study of adjoining properties and street lines must be made first. In
describing the location of the buildings on this property, gardens, fences,
etc., we shall have to take for granted that the lines east west, and
north south are more or less parallel, though we know by the dimensions
that they are not quite parallel. The following is the description of
the property by the heirs: It was printed in 1772

1. The Swedenborg estate is situated in Söder on Hornsgatan in the
Mullvad Quarter, no. 1 on freehold ground.

2. The site of this property, according to the measurement thereof that
has been made, embraces in length on the north side at Hornsgatan 112
ells, on the south side which abuts on other properties, also 112 ells,
and in breadth on the east side abutting Grocer Kempe's property, 53
ells, and on the west side abutting Ropemaker Nyman's property, 52 ells,
making together in square measure 5,880 ells.

3. This site, together with the houses and the wooden board fence surrounding
it, is well protected and enclosed. It is also divided by a fine board
fence and gates, into two parts, of which the eastern contains about
one-third of the whole site, and the western contains the rest or two-thirds.
The eastern part is again separated with board fence and gate, and the
dwelling houses themselves, into three parts. The first division, which
is narrow and extends over the whole site in the east, is merely a place
and outlet for what is gathered from the stable and cowhouse. The second
part, in the north, embraces the house itself with a suitable and pretty
courtyard; and the third part, which is at the south, includes first
a building, which as to its noteworthy points comes to be described
later, and outside this building a garden with flowers and shaped box
trees.

Of this garden, Robsahm says:

Before his house there was an ornamental flower bed, upon which he
expended considerable sums of money; he had there even some of those
singular Dutch figures of animals, and other objects shaped out of box-trees;
but this bed he did not keep up in his later years.

The greater part of the site in the west constitutes a considerable garden
with choice young fruit trees, flowers, and vegetables, and also many
large and fine lime trees standing in uninterrupted order in the house
garden and the pleasure garden. It contains different buildings, which
will be spoken of later.

4. The building in the eastern division consists of a dwelling house
built not very long ago of wood with a tile roof, ells long and
14 ells [27.3 ft] wide. It contains three large rooms, two in the lower,
and one in the upper story or attic. Next to this, along the street,
are suitable stables for horses and cows, with necessary storeroom for
fodder and other conveniences, all built of wood and covered with tiles
and painted red like the house.

5. The house, which is south of the eastern division and includes the
whole north side of the little garden mentioned above, is 19 ells [37
ft] long and 16 ells [31.2 ft] broad. It has entrances with their vestibules
at both the north and the south. In the lower story it has two fine
large and one small wallpapered rooms, and in the upper story a large
room for a hothouse, all provided with their necessary stoves. This
house is built with cross work 1 and tiles covered
within and without with boards and panels, and on the outside painted
yellow.

The two
large rooms were Swedenborg's study and his reception or drawing room.
The smaller room was his bedroom. Of these, Robsahm says:

The fire in the stove of his study was never allowed to go out, from
autumn throughout the whole of winter until spring; for, as he always
needed coffee, and as he made it himself, without milk or cream, and
as he had never any definite time for sleeping, he always required to
have a fire. His sleeping-room was always without fire; and when he
lay down, according to the severity of the winter, he covered himself
either with three or four woollen blankets; but I remember one winter
which was so cold that he was obliged to move his bed into his study.
As soon as he awoke, he went into his study—where he always found
glowing embers—put wood upon the burning coals and a few pieces
of birch-rind, which for convenience he used to purchase in bundles,
so as to be able to make a fire speedily; and then he sat down to write.

In his drawing-room there was the marble table which he afterwards
presented to the Royal College of Mines; this room was neat and genteel,
but plain.

6. In the larger western part of the site, that is, the above-mentioned
big garden, are several buildings, such as:

No. 1 : A square house in the center which has openings to all four
walks which meet here. Its walls are of wood made as trellises, with
flat roof which with the trellises around it forms a pretty balcony.
It has round benches in all the corners.

Of this square house, Robsahm
says that it was built

according to the plan of one he had seen on a gentleman's estate
in England.

No. 2: Opposite it, by the north board fence is a house with three
sides and three double doors facing the garden; a pointed roof on which
are three large triangular windows. This house is so arranged that if
one opens all the doors and sets a mirror on the fourth wall which is
at the board fence, one will see three gardens, which present in the
same positions all that is found in the real garden.

Robsahm says that on the north side, this house had a blind door, and
when this was opened, it revealed a mirror in which was reflected the
voliere referred to in the next paragraph.

The effect was most charming and surprising to those who opened it
with a view of entering Swedenborg's other garden, which, according
to his statement, was much more beautiful than his first one. Swedenborg
derived much sport from this arrangement, especially when inquisitive
and curious young ladies came into his garden.

No. 3 : At the south side, answering over against the last-named building,
is a many-cornered house (or so-called 'voliere') for all kinds of birds,
large and small. The walls are like a network made of heavy brass wire.

No. 4: At the west end of this garden, next to Hornsgatan is first a
commodious carriage house, then a room for garden tools built and roofed
with boards, and painted red.

No. 5 : Opposite the great walk is a pretty pleasure house consisting
of a hall, and within is a little room from which one comes into the
library [built in 1767].

No. 6: is a low but pleasant building on the south side next to the above-named
pleasure house. These houses just mentioned are well provided on the
outside with yellow board panels, and on the inside with beautiful wallpapers.

No. 7: Between the library and the garden fence at the south is a Dutch
building made like a vaulted cellar, but also covered with earth for
the preserving of vegetables.

No. 8: Facing this earth mound is set up a labyrinth of boards which
are so arranged that if any one, not knowing it, goes some space in
it, he cannot find any exit unless he has help.

According to
Robsahm, Swedenborg constructed this labyrinth

entirely for the amusement of the good people that would come and visit
him in his garden, and especially for their children; and there he would
receive them with a cheerful countenance, and enjoy their delight at
his contrivances.

7. Under the pleasure house (No. 5) in the large garden is a new vaulted
cellar, and under the buildings in the manor house is laid the foundation
for a stone house.

A much later description of Swedenborg's property is given by a writer
in the Intellectual Repository (1867, p. 71) who saw the property in 1866:
Both Swedenborg's house and the large garden were then considerably changed,
the hothouse in the dwelling having been divided into rooms, and many
of the trees in the garden gone or decayed.

A few steps farther [on Hornsgatan] is No. 43; a pair of large carriage
gates, a door for foot visitors, a wooden house, side to the street,
which has a door and a window opening into it, and then a long stretch
of wooden garden fence, close boarded. . . . On entering the smaller
door, one has the end of the street house on the right hand, and sees
in front, about fifteen yards distant, the gable end of a brightly painted
house of two storys. The upper story is a lean-to in the roof; there
is a little flower garden between it and the visitor, its front looking
across another little patch of flowers to a fence, on the other side
of which is a row of lime trees, and beyond a large garden. In this
modest, simple, but merry-looking little house lived and wrote our great
philosopher.

It's very small—but nine feet high to the eaves. Approaching it
from the street, there is first a double door, then three windows; at
the distant end another door, opening under cover of a gangway, which
formerly probably ran down or round half the garden. A mansard roof
of pantiles surmounts the low building; a dormer window pierces it,
so as to look fairly through the lime trees, exactly opposite the garden
gate and the distant summerhouse. In the gable end, which looks toward
the street, are two windows; one below, to light the hall, is now 'blind';
a square one above gives light to the landing of the staircase. The
whole building is but forty-two feet long by about twenty-one feet deep;
but at the end nearest the street is an additional bit of about six
feet, used as a scullery, etc.; it fills the space between the back
of the house and a tall stone wall of the adjoining property. On entering
at the double door, a step down is the hall or lobby, out of which goes,
straight in front, the staircase, and on the right the room which is
lighted by one of the three windows of the front, and is heated by an
old earthen blue pattern stove. This room is separated from the next
(taking a second window) by a partition, probably of recent erection.
Beyond this is the kitchen, which accounts for the third window, and
has its outlet to the covered way before mentioned, now used as a wood
store, etc.

A staircase full of 'winders' leads to a landing over the hall, in the
gable. Opposite the square window is the bedroom door. The room, though
it has its walls not perpendicular, looks very airy and light. It is now
divided into two rooms by a modern partition; the dormer window lights
one of these, the larger; the other inner one has its own window in the
gable end. A pitcher with garden flowers stood on the window-sill, and
gave a pleasant, homely look to the old place. It is but a mere cottage
of four rooms, that's all. It is built of logs, dovetailed together at
the ends, and covered with boards. Over their edges is nailed a strip
of wood, to keep them water-tight. These give a neat striped look to the
walls, not un-pleasant. The whole building is painted ochre color; the
molding under the eaves and gutter, dark red; the window frames, white;
and nothing can look more comfortable than it does, quietly settled in
its flower plots, under the honest blue sky. Immediately opposite the
middle of the front is a gate of wood, under a heavy molded head or hood
of massive construction. Its curves are designed as one sees the French
doorways arranged of the period of Louis XIV; and it has quite an air
of display about it that the house has not. This gateway leads to a walk,
about fifty-five yards long, down the center of the garden. In the plots
on each side are the stumps of old fruit trees; on the right, three apple
trees still flourish; on the left are two old pear trees, which look old
enough to have been planted by their great proprietor.

At the end of the walk are two poplars; behind them is the summerhouse,
which looks down the garden walk between the trees. It occupies the
middle of the end of the garden, and is about fourteen feet square.
There are three stone steps up to the doorsill, a double door, on each
side a window; a vine gathers over them and the top of the door, and
clambers partly over the roof. On the two sides are external traces,
and the shutters, of windows which are now obliterated inside. In the
room is another door opposite the entrance; it opens into a lobby, a
pace wide, on the right of which is a cupboard, on the left the bricked-up
doorway, which formerly led to the covered way; a part of it remains
between the summerhouse and the long side of the garden, away from the
street. From that angle to within a few yards of the house, the covered
way has been removed. It appears as if it originally ran down the length
of the garden and served as a protected path to the summerhouse—pleasant
in bad weather or at night. Like the house, the summerhouse or study
is built of logs, raised on a granite foundation about a couple of feet
from the ground. It is as gay in color as the house—dark red lines
on yellow ground, with white window frames and a black roof, all well
contrasted with the bright green of the vine. The roof does not go up
to a ridge or gable, but is broken through by a short vertical portion,
in which are long narrow windows, serving to light the loft over the
room. This, in its turn, is roofed with hip rafters. On the two points
of the ridge is a ball ornament, on which is perched a little golden
star. A chair which belonged to Swedenborg remains in the summerhouse.
His organ lately stood there, but has passed into the possession of
Mr. Hammer, in whose museum, in Byström's Villa, it may be seen.

The garden is fenced in, and divided from the street by a palisade
of such great boards as can only be seen in a country where wood is in
great abundance.